OPINION Pg8

HERALD
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o= HERALD o=
Vol No CIX No: 297
Goa Jesuits: 250 Years Ago and Since
Goa, Saturday 24 October, 2009 The Society of Jesus has helped many in India face the oppressions and challenges of history, says TEOTONIO R DE SOUZA
Indigenous T
he Jesuits made their maiden entry in Goa on of the shrinking Padroado. However, despite this
6 May 1542 with Francis Xavier as their high- conflict the Portuguese Jesuits continued in touch
profile representative. Since then, hundreds with the Portuguese bishops in the Padroado

innovation ignored? and thousands of Jesuits arrived in Goa or passed

through Goa on their way to other missionary
dioceses, including those of Goa, Meliapore,
Cranganore and Kochi. It would be the Bishop of

W
ednesday’s train mishap at Mathura, when the Goa Sampark
Kranti Express rammed into the stationary Mewar Express,
killed 23 passengers and left as many wounded, could have
been avoided, says former Konkan Railway Managing Director S
Rajaram. In fact, he says, most train accidents (the Indian Railways
has at least a dozen or more a year) can be averted. The problem is
that red tape in the Railway Board has deliberately sabotaged the
implementation of a successfully tested anti-collision device (ACD)
designed by the former Konkan Railway chief and validated over 10
years ago, during his tenure with the Konkan Railways. He has since
retired.
Mr Rajaram has no personal interest in the device, except that he
pioneered its development while he was still the head of the Konkan
Railway Corporation, which now holds the entire intellectual property
rights for the device. However, he is deeply pained that full
implementation of the indigenous ACD project has been deliberately
held back. He says this has been done to benefit foreign companies
that want to sell their own accident prevention systems to the
Railways, at much higher prices.
The former MD has alleged that some people in the Railway Board
and in the Railways Ministry seem to be anxious to help foreign
companies. As a result, even though installation of the devices, after
due testing and validation, has been already sanctioned in three
Zonal Railways, the decision is yet to be implemented, even though
the Railways itself, as well as the travelling passengers, suffer huge
losses each year on account of accidents that are entirely preventable.
The only Railway that has installed the indigenous ACD, predictably,
is the Konkan Railway. Mr Rajaram says it is working with 99.9 per
cent efficiency. The device has been certified to be of international
standards by the Lucknow-based Research Design and Standards
Organisation, as also by Lloyds of the UK. Had it been fitted on
railway engines, it would have saved hundreds of lives over the past
10 years. In fact, in 2004, the Railway Board testified that it was an
efficient system before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Railways, and said it would be implemented in other parts of the
country.
But, as in so many things, kickbacks are often more important to
certain bureaucrats than public property or even people’s lives. Though
he has consciously refrained from raising this point, Mr Rajaram’s
letter to Railways Minister Mamata Bannerjee complains that big
multinational corporations (MNCs) feel threatened by the Konkan
Railway ACD, which is more accurate than their systems, and are
using their “friends” in the Railways Ministry to put roadblocks in its
implementation.
He says that in 2007, the Railways announced a pilot project to fit
regions of their activity in Asia and East Africa. In
1967 the late Swiss-born Jesuit historian Josef Wicki
published a list of all the Jesuiten Indienfahrer
during the period 1541-1758, which gives an
average of 10 to 15 per year. Quite often the great
majority of the Jesuits were non-Portuguese, such
as Italians, Spanish, Flemish, Germans and even
Croatians. In 1583, for instance, there was only
one Portuguese among the India-bound Jesuits.
In 1759, or 250 years ago, Jesuits from different
houses in Old Goa and Salcete were rounded up
on the night of 26th and dawn of 27th September
and detained at their new St Paul’s, in the vicinity
of the present-day ruins of St Augustine. They were
permitted to celebrate mass in groups of seven,
and were escorted by troops at all times. However,
despite all official pressures, at least 60 Jesuits
remained in the regions outside Portuguese control.
In Kanara missions, the native rulers of Kittur,
Sunda, Raichur and Mysore refused to hand them
over. Also, the Jesuit bishops in Cochin and
Cranganore refused to obey orders to leave their
jurisdiction by appealing to urgent needs of their
subjects. There were also some in Madurai mission.
Since the great concentration of the Jesuits was
in Salcete, which was their privileged turf from the
very start, 25 of them were rounded up from different
parishes and locked up at Rachol seminary along
with the other regular inmates, before being
transferred to the new St Paul’s at Old Goa. They
were huddled on its third floor under the supervision
of Franciscans, while some were transferred to
houses of other religious orders, like the
Dominicans and the Augustinians. They were not
allowed to say goodbye to St Francis Xavier as
they wished, and on 19 December 1760 (just
around the other fateful date two centuries later)
were placed on two ships bound for Lisbon with
hardly sufficient space to receive 127 Jesuits. Only
103 arrived alive in Lisbon on May 20, 1761. Of
these some foreigners were expelled, while most
spent 16 years in the dungeons in Portugal.
Following the Portuguese initiative, the Society
of Jesus was banned by other Bourbon monarchs in
Europe, but it survived in Russiam where Catherine
Tongue in Cheek
HISTORICAL EXPLORATIONS
the Great refused to apply the Papal Bull of
suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773.
Interestingly, it would be from Russia that the Society
of Jesus would return when Pope Pius VII decided to
restore the Society of Jesus as part of the process
initiated by the Congress of Vienna, seeking to undo
the changes effected by the French Revolution and
Napoleon.
Following the restoration of the Society of Jesus
in France in 1815, the French Jesuits were the first
to return to India in 1838 and Pope Gregory XVI
entrusted to them the former Jesuit Madurai Mission.
Among them was a Goan Jesuit, António Pereira,
who may be considered the second native Goan
Jesuit ever since Andre Vaz, in the early days of the
Society of Jesus in India. While other white religious
orders had admitted some natives into their ranks,
the Jesuits did not, excepting the aforementioned
Andre Vaz, till the suppression of the Order. We
could conclude that during the first 250 years there
were really no Goan Jesuits, but only Jesuits in Goa.
Just at the time when the Society was being
restored, Portugal saw the rise of liberal politics,
which extended the hostility against the Jesuits to
all religious orders which were formally banned in
Award Mania
Portuguese territories in 1832-34. The Portuguese
Jesuits had to go into exile and in India they operated
from mission bases in Belgaum, and from Allepey
and Kotagiri in the South. This situation continued
under the Portuguese republican regime and was
mitigated only after Salazar’s coming to power in
1926.
It took nearly 200 years for the Jesuits to return
to Goa after the suppression. They did it from their
outpost in Belgaum. St Paul’s in Belgaum was
frequented by Goans seeking job opportunities and
English education, and became the main
operational and early recruitment base for the Jesuit
return to Goa. The candidates were sent for
formation to Allepey and to Kurseong. Interesting
bits of information can be drawn from the newsletter
entitled Ecos da Província de Portugal that
coordinated the news of the Portuguese Jesuits in
exile and was published from Tuy, on the border
between Portugal and Spain.
While the pre-suppression Jesuits were loyal
(though the loyalty of the non-Portuguese Jesuits
was at times doubted) to the Portuguese Padroado,
the post-restoration Jesuits were loyal to
Propaganda Fide, and became a thorn in the flesh
Meliapore, D Teotonio Vieira de Castro, when
appointed archbishop-patriarch of Goa, who invited
Pe António Bernardo Gonçalves to be spiritual father
of the Rachol Seminary in 1931, to fill in the vacuum
left by the saintly Fr Agnelo de Sousa.
It served as a starting point for the creation of
the Goa Section of the Jesuit Province of Portugal in
1934, and Fr Gonçalves was named its Delegate, a
post he retained till 1953. Fr Gonçalves used well
his base at Rachol Seminary to recruit many of his
first Goan candidates for the Society of Jesus.
Some of his recruits are still active or alive in
Goa-Pune region, while others I have known
personally and remember fondly during my own 25
years in the Society of Jesus include António Cruz,
Massillon Fernandes, Carlos Andrade, Peter de Sá,
Carlos de Melo (later Delegate of the Goa Section),
Mário Santa Rita Vaz, Mário Meireles, António
Pereira, Lino de Sousa, Arnaldo Pinto, Edwin de
Souza, João da Veiga Coutinho (author of A Kind of
Absence), Vasco do Rego and Brother Cana.
In 1931 Archbishop-Patriarch D Theotonio
Manuel Vieira de Castro had bought the Union
School in Margão and renamed it St Theotonio
Union High School. In February 1944 the Archbishop-
Patriarch D José da Costa Nunes handed it over to
the Jesuits and it took its actual name of Loyola
High School.
In 1956 the Jesuits were invited to return to Bom
Jesus, and Fr Walter Mathias occupied the room
left vacant by Canon John Rebelo. Fr Emanuel Pires,
SJ, was already serving as military chaplain in Old
Goa and kept him company. The rest is more recent
history for which one could find useful inputs in the
Goa Section: A Jesuit News Bulletin, first published
in April 1956.
I shall conclude with my own remarks elsewhere
and which Fr John Correia-Afonso, SJ, saw fit to
make his own in his farewell book on The Jesuits in
India (1997): “Whatever may have been the
compulsions of history, the Society of Jesus has
played a prominent role in helping many in India, as
elsewhere, to rise and face more adequately the
oppressions and challenges of history, through their
pastoral and educational activities.”
By Adelmo Fernandes

ACDs on train engines on the rugged and remote 1736-km Northeast
Frontier Railway, which he alleges was deliberately chosen to prove
that the technology would not work in adverse conditions. But, against
all odds, it passed the test with flying colours. Even after this, he
laments, efforts are on to rope in the MNCs, in the name of
‘competition’.
It’s not just this device. During Mr Rajaram’s tenure, the Konkan
Railway had developed an efficient but extremely low-cost technology
called the ‘Raksha Dhaga’, to warn trains in advance about landslides
along the route during the monsoon. But once he retired, the system
was abandoned. Even the Sky Bus project is unable to take off, merely
because the Railway Safety Board is refusing to certify it, saying that
since it is not strictly a ‘railway’ (which it is, actually), it is outside its
jurisdiction. When will we learn to value indigenous innovation?
Ms Banerjee had herself travelled in an engine fitted with the
prototype of the ACD in Goa in 1999, during her first stint as Railways
Minister. She was so impressed that she approved its implementation
in the Konkan Railway in January 2000, ignoring objections by the
Railway Board. Hopefully, she will now set things right and prevent
more accidents.
R
ecently Goa won the Best Small State award for citizens’ security
at the IBN Diamond State Award presentation ceremony,
organised by IBN7- Outlook. Ironically, this award has come at a
time when the state has seen a spate of robberies. Houses in Benaulim,
Nuvem, Colva and Margao have been burgled. The worst-hit were
the jewellery shops in the commercial capital. A jeweller was even
waylaid and robbed of valuables and cash. Then there was the bomb
blast in Margao which, because of divine intervention, did not end in
a major cataclysm, though it had the potential of causing damage of
catastrophic proportions.
As a matter of fact, it was reported that Goa won six of the eight
awards up for grabs. These included awards in the category of health
care and environment among others. It was reported that at Cansaulim
patients were advised not to stay in the hospital at night because the
toilets were not functioning. As regards the environment, the Goa
Government seems unable to find a solution to the garbage problem
which is raising a stink.
This brings us to a very important question. How did Goa get these
awards? Well, my guess is as good as yours. This was probably
possible because there was absolutely no competition in the small
state category. By the way, how many states fall in this bracket? Was
Goa the only state in this category? Probably.
Be that as it may, Goa should not lose heart, given that an
international figure also got an award which many felt was one
award too big, too early. US President Barack Hussein Obama won
the Nobel Prize for Peace for the year 2009. This startled not only the
world but Obama himself.
But there is a positive side to winning awards you do not deserve.
The award lays down a standard which the recipient will be forced
to live up to. So the Goa Government will have to pull up its socks
as far as citizens’ security, health care, environment, etc, is
concerned. Whether those in power will do it is the multi-billion-
rupee question.
Awards are always welcome. An award could be in cash or by
way of a trophy. This is invariably accompanied by a certificate.
Many may consider a certificate more important than the award
itself. Armed with a certificate of excellence, it always easier to
get that that prestigious job placement. We have been receiving
awards right from our school days, be it in academics or sports. It
is a prestigious thing to win an award. Many homes display the
awards their children have won in the showcase in the living
room. Awards are not meant to be kept hidden. There are meant
for people to see. The print and the electronic media has joined in
the bandwagon by announcing awards in various fields. We have
awards in the field of entertainment, science and technology, and
business among others.
But then, like everything else in life, there is a darker side to
awards. Choosing a deserving candidate can be very tricky. Several
factors could have an influence while choosing a candidate. Having
godfathers in the right places can help in ‘achieving’ an award. Money
power also plays an important role. It could be said that some awards
come with a price tag. In such a situation, undeserving candidates
hog the limelight, while deserving candidates are left to lick their
wounds.
Here are some awards which the state of Goa would well deserve:
1. An award for the politically most unstable state in the country. We
have lost count of how many Chief Ministers we have had over the
past decade. Politics in our civic bodies is a game of merry-go-round
(more the merrier) as there is rotation of chairpersons after every
six months. Even then a chairperson could be shown the door even
before his six months in office are over.
2. Goa is a deserving candidate for road infrastructure. Our roads can
at best be described as more of dirt and less of road.
3. Goa could well get an award for building bridges which do not last
for more than a decade.
I’d better stop here, as the list seems endless.

Letters to the Editor

Instant justice
Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
It is shocking to see Goa witnessing a spate
of murders in recent years committed by young
misguided youth who do not like hard work
and want to become rich instantly. They fail
to understand the consequences of their evil
designs. Innocent lives are taken for
momentary gain, putting the families of the
deceased in dire straits.
The guilty should be dealt severely as per
law without dragging on the case
unnecessarily. We should take the example
of Arab countries where justice is given
instantly and there is fear in the minds of
people even to think of committing such acts.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
Parents need to keep a watchful eye on
their children and their children’s friends.
100 Years Ago
PRIMEIRO DIARIO NAS COLONIAS PORTUGEZAS
24 October 1909
Bigamist skips town
It is reported that the alleged bigamist
from Sernabatim is a musician by profes-
sion and left for Calcutta as soon as he
came to know about his impending arrest
as he was earlier married to a lady from
Benaulim who bore him two children.
Defamation case filed
The editor of ‘Hindupanch’ was sued for
publishing an article against Mr Gokhale,
the representative of a moderate Party.
Hungary-Austria conflict
A conflict over the constitution for Bosnia
and Herzegovina seriously threatens the
cabinets of Hungary and Austria.
Suffragists arrested
Suffragists tried to cut the telegraphic wires
to block transmission of a speech made by
Mr Runciman. Five suffragists were arrested.
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reflect the views of the Herald editor, publisher, and/or owners.
Otherwise, Goa will witness more turbulent
days in the near future. I would advise the
ladies not to accept lifts from strangers, even
if there are ladies sitting in the vehicles.
Get rid of casinos
S Kamat, Alto Betim
The suspicion that most Goans had with re-
gard to the casinos being only an invitation to
prostitution, crime and drugs was proven
when a senior official of the Mint casino was
reportedly caught with a woman at a Dona
Paula hotel in not very moral circumstances.
No amount of condemnation of the above
incident by the casino association in Goa or
denial by the employees who work on board
these casinos can hide the truth. Our deci-
sion to allow casinos could be for minor rea-
sons like employment and the revenue that
they bring to the government. But if they con-
tinue, society may be progressively criminal-
ised. The existence of casinos will entrap our
youth in the web of sex, crime and drugs and
more Goan ladies will be attacked by visitors.
We should continue with the protests to
remove casinos from Goa to put an end to this
menace.
Government job scam?
Reuben Sequeira, Chicalim
The delay in recruiting 52 Grade I teachers on
the recommendations of the Goa Public Serv-
ice Commission (GPSC) has left the students
in a lurch, as correct procedures were not
followed for selection. 50% of the candidates
were selected through promotion of assist-
ant teachers and the rest by fresh appoint-
ments. The government’s recommendation
of having no subject-wise seniority lists makes
it difficult to promote an eligible candidate in
the first place.
The government needs to issue appoint-
ment letters to the selected candidates im-
mediately so as to reassure Goenkars that
the education sector is corruption-free.
Amendments should also be made to ensure
that appointments to Grade I are based on
promotions. Let us show our solidarity to our
eminently qualified teachers on a hunger
strike, as a mark of respect to this noble
to love our neighbours. Jesus Christ never
Paths of Wisdom
Letter of the Day taught us to discriminate. Goan Christians
need to take the teachings of our Lord seri-
ously.
BJP lotus wilting Relief ruckus
Sandeep Heble, Taleigao Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
The Mystic
The Bharatiya Janata Party, the nation’s principal opposition party, had yet another setback The widespread misappropriation of govern-
after it suffered a miserable defeat in all three states that went to the polls recently. The ment funds for the flood relief beneficiaries of Angels have talked with him, and showed
Congress, despite its shoddy governance, won. So what exactly went wrong for the BJP? Canacona was seen when the nodal officer him thrones:
Why is the BJP lotus wilting? N D Agarwal opened a Pandora’s box and Ye knew him not; he was not one of ye,
The writing was clear on the wall during the last parliamentary elections when the BJP expressed the need for a resurvey of the flood- Ye scorned him with an undiscerning scorn:
plummeted to its worst tally since its meteoric rise about a decade back, but the bigwigs relief claims. Ye could not read the marvel in his eye,
in the Party just refused to read the writing on the wall. While the BJP moved from one crisis Our politicians comes forward for such re- The still serene abstraction: he hath felt
to another, Advani, the ‘Bhishma Pitamaha’ of the party, continued to stay stuck to his lief operations primarily for their own inter- The vanities of after and before;
throne, unwilling to resign on moral considerations. ests or to use a part of these funds for their Albeit, his spirit and his secret heart
Today, there is a huge disconnect between the youth and the BJP. Searching for young selfish motives. The Chief Minister needs to The stern experiences of converse lives,
faces in the BJP who can capture the imagination of the youth is akin to searching for a devise a foolproof system so that any form of The linked woes of many a fiery change
needle in a haystack. The Congress has Rahul and Priyanka, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin assistance reaches the affected people in Had purified, and chastened, and made
Pilot, Milind Deora, and so many others who are suave, dynamic, articulate and intelligent, time. free. .. .
and whom the youth can look up to. Who does the BJP have? Rahul Mahajan and Varun For him the silent congregated hours,
Gandhi? Yikes! Sombre scenario Daughters of time, divinely tall, beneath
While the world is surging ahead at a rapid pace, the BJP is still caught in its Hindutva Severe and youthful brows, with shining
Newton Mendonca, Aldona
ideology, an ideology that wishes to drag India back into the dark ages. For the party, eyes
Hindutva is not about opening the temple doors to the backward castes, it is not about The recent floods as well as the infamous Smiling a godlike smile (the innocent light
eliminating the caste divisions in the society, it is not about giving pride of place to women bomb blast which shook Goa have created a Of earliest youth pierced through and
in our society. Hindutva to the BJP is all about banning films and books, smashing and very sombre situation. through with all
The catastrophic floods had little to do with
vandalizing art galleries, driving artists like Hussain into exile, banning supposedly vulgar
forms of music, opposing minorities and their cultural practices, and acting like moral any human mischief. But the bomb blast has
Keen knowledges of low-embowed eld)
Upheld, and ever hold aloft the cloud
clearly established that even Goans are fed
policemen on anything and everything under the sun.
up with each other. We see this from the
Which droops low-hung on either gate of
The choice before the party is pretty clear.  Either it can grow by re-inventing itself on life,
unhealthy cut-throat competition right from
modern secular liberal principles or it must perish. There is no third alternative. Both birth and death: he in the centre fixt,
a young age, which is setting bad precedent
Saw far on each side through the grated
profession. pose high security number plates. among the youth by causing rivalry which gates
The prime intention of the ministers is to easily festers into hatred. Our culture was
Most pale and clear and lovely distances.
Goa, we cry! make money without bothering about the ‘susegad’, but did any of us, Hindus, Chris- He often lying broad awake, and yet
Edgar Martins, Chinchinim development of Goans. They are only con- tians, or Muslims, lack anything? Remaining from the body, and apart
cerned about the betterment of their own The bonds of friendship and harmony need
There were no crimes, murders, rapes and In intellect and power and will, hath heard
families. to be revived if we are going to once again Time flowing in the middle of the night,
bombs, corruption and religious issues in Goa thrive in our land. Otherwise there is always
during Portuguese rule and after liberation And all things creeping to a day of doom.
under the rule of Dayanand Bandodkar. One
Love thy neighbour disaster waiting at out doorstep. How could ye know him? Ye were yet with-
wonders as to what the current ruling and Willie Severes, Majorda in
opposition parties are doing, when we see This is with reference to Joao Jose Fernandes’s
Portuguese IDs The narrower circle: he had wellnigh
these things in Goa on a massive scale. In- letter titled ‘We need the land’ (Herald, 19 Agnelo Jose Tomas Baracho, Kuwait reached
stead of garbage disposal plants, we see IFFI. Oct). When the Catholic community has the During my recent vacations in Goa in late The last, which with a region of white
A new airport is proposed instead of starting benefit of a cemetery in each village, they September 2009, I was given to understand flame,
some factories to gainfully employ Goans. Good should not object to the building of a kabrastan that the Portuguese Consulate had processed Pure without heat, into a larger air
jobs are meant not for the sons of the soil but for Muslims. Muslims should not be denied a large number of Goan applicants for the Upburning, and an ether of black blue,
for outsiders. Instead of looking into the prob- their constitutional rights. Portuguese ID. But is it legal to have such an Investeth and ingirds all other lives.
lem of potholes on roads, they want to im- We have been repeatedly told in the Bible ID when I hold an Indian passport? (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)